The term ‘real woman’ is something that has been regularly uttered in recent years to describe the curvaceous, attractive figure of a woman, and to combat the ever-increasing presence of an unachievable slim body in the media.

However, currently in the media it seems that this term is unfairly stigmatising those women who are naturally slim or skinny. In Nicki Minaj’s  latest release, ‘Anaconda’, one of the lines is ‘F*** those skinny bitches in the club I wanna see all the big fat ass bitches in the motherf***ing club, f*** you if you skinny bitches.’ I’m not sure when Nicki Minaj thought it would be okay to start discriminating against size, when her own body has been created by a plastic surgeon, but I also highly doubt these ‘real women’ would appreciate being called a ‘fat ass bitch’. It seems according to Minaj, whether you’re fat or skinny, you’re a ‘bitch’, and the fewer clothes you wear to show these curves off, even if they are created for a sizeable price, the better (see the Anaconda video for more life lessons from Nicki).

Aside from the clear and prominent objectification of women that happens in Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda video, this discrimination of a woman’s size, which therefore makes her ‘real’ or  ‘skinny’ is prominent in other aspects of the media. Kelly Brook recently released a line of clothing for plus size clothing company ‘Simply Be’. Though she claims this line is designed for ‘women with curves’ and uses this concept of ‘real woman’ as the target audience for her products, this line starts at a size 10. Size 10 is one of the smallest sizes available in most high street shops, begging the question: why should this be labelled plus size? And why can’t a woman who is smaller than a size 10 be real? This dictatorial attitude of what we should and shouldn’t be penetrates so many aspects of our lives, that it now feels almost second nature.

Furthermore, the hashtag ‘fatkini’ has found recent popularity on Instagram. The premise of this hashtag  was a positive one, attempting to shed the notion that every woman have a toned, tanned ‘bikini body’ in time for summer, but actually the way to get a bikini body is to simply put a bikini on, whilst simultaneously subverting the meaning of the word ‘fat’, making it a compliment, rather than an insult. The idea was to show ‘real women’ in bikinis, but why do these ‘real’ people have to be plus size? Isn’t this making naturally slim people feel isolated in the same way that seeing an unrealistically thin body plastered throughout the media makes larger women feel negatively towards themselves?

The long and short of it remains that the whole idea of ‘real women’ has become obsessive and demeaning, causing unnecessary contempt; surely there is enough conflict involving race, religion, sexuality and gender, without the creation of petty grievances involving something as foolish as size?

The involvement of the media in our perception of ourselves and others is ridiculous. By shaming different body types for different things, the media is creating a generation of women who will never be satisfied with their body.

Sophie Bell